Chicago's saxophonist
Anthony Braxton (1945)
was the "creative" musician who displayed the most
obvious affinity with western classical music, scoring chamber music (both
for solo instrument and for small ensembles), as well as orchestral music,
that seemed aimed at extending the vocabulary of European music rather than
the vocabulary of jazz music.
If his was jazz music, it was the most cerebral jazz ever.

Better than any other jazz musician, Braxton represented the quantum leap
forward that jazz music experienced after free jazz opened the doors of
abstract composition. The music that was born as an evolution of blues and
ragtime suddenly competed with the white avantgarde for radical redefinitions
of the concept of harmony.
Following in the footsteps of John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen, Braxton
introduced new graphic notations to capture the subtleties of his scores,
and even titled his pieces with diagrams instead of words.
He invented new ways of composing and performing music.
He also loved to write about his musical theory.
As a virtuoso of woodwind instruments (particularly of the alto saxophone),
Braxton worked to extend the timbre and the technique.
But, unlike his predecessors, Braxton was motivated by science rather than
by emotion.
Originally inspired by John Coltrane, he impersonated Coltrane's antithesis.
In 1967 Braxton formed a trio with violinist Leroy Jenkins and trumpeter Leo Smith, the Creative Construction Company, that gladly dispensed with the rhythm section, with melody and with traditional harmony.
Three Compositions of New Jazz (april 1968), that also featured Muhal Richard Abrams on piano, contained the 20-minute Comp. 6E, the manifesto of
Braxton's style (at the same time abstract, visceral and geometric).
The record sleeve provided the graphic scores of the music, that looked more like mathematical equations, and explained the chance-based technique that were incorporated in those scores (a` la John Cage's aleatory music).
A few months later Braxton became the first musician ever to record an album
of saxophone solos, For Alto (february 1969).
This groundbreaking double-LP album contained eight extended pieces (each
cryptically dedicated to a musician), culminating with another 20-minute
juggernaut, Comp. 8B.
His playing showed little respect for jazz traditions, but a lot of curiosity
for textures and patterns. While this was mostly music of the brain, it was
performed with an almost hysterical intensity. Braxton himself seemed reluctant
to continue the project.
The trio's contemporary Silence (july 1969), released only six years later, contained Jenkins' 17-minute Off The Top Of My Head and Smith's 15-minute Silence, two pieces that were less radical and more obviously in
the free-jazz vein.
The French album
Anthony Braxton (september 1969) sounded like an appendix to the trio's
music, with Smith's ten-minute The Light On The Dalta and
Jenkins' nine-minute Simple Like, but also included a new
Braxton vision, the 20-minute Comp. 6G. The line-up consisted of
the trio plus drummer Steve McCall. It looked more conventional on paper,
but Braxton played all sorts of woodwinds,
Smith played horns and siren besides trumpet, and
Jenkins toyed with viola, flute, harmonica, etc.
Adding pianist Muhal Richard Abrams and drummer Steve McCall,
Creative Construction Company (may 1970), released in 1976, was mainly
taken up by a 34-minute Jenkins composition, Muhal.
The second volume (same session) was, again, a colossal Jenkins track, No More White Gloves.

In the meantime, Braxton had formed Circle, a quartet with pianist Chick Corea,
double-bassist Dave Holland and drummer Barry Altschul. Their first document,
Circulus (august 1970), credited to Corea when released as a double-LP
in 1975, contained three lengthy collective improvisations titled
Quartet Piece.
Circling In (october 1970), again credited to Corea when released as a double-LP in 1978, was a less cryptic recording, highlighted by
Chimes and Braxton's Comp. 6F.
The Complete (february 1971) offered more of Braxton's compositions
employing Holland, Altschul, Corea, plus trumpeter Kenny Wheeler and
multiple tubas, in different settings.
The Gathering (may 1971), the first studio album credited to Circle,
contained only one 42-minute Corea composition, the title-track, and each
of the four members played multiple instruments.

Relocating to New York in 1970, Braxton became the recognized guru of creative
music.
Together Alone (december 1971), released in 1975, inaugurated the
series of Braxton duets. This one was with Joseph Jarman (both alternating at
multiple instruments), highlighted by
Jarman's 14-minute Dawn Dance One and
Braxton's 15-minute Comp. 20.

Finally, Braxton gave For Alto a successor, and it almost sounded like
everything he had done in between the two masterpieces was merely a long
rehearsal.
Saxophone Improvisations Series F (february 1972) was again a double-LP
collection of lengthy tracks dedicated to musicians. The longest,
104 Kelvin M12 (or, better,
Comp. 26F), was dedicated to minimalist composer Philip Glass, and
for a good reason: the influence of minimalist iteration was strong,
lending the album its hypnotic, otherworldly quality. Braxton's process was
obscure and often not very musical, but the concentration was worthy of
a physicist discovering a new substance.
These pieces openly unveiled the process of distortion, variation and repetition that underlay the neurotic, claustrophonic feeling of Braxton's music.

The three-LP live album Creative Music Orchestra (march 1972) introduced
a new side of Braxton. Four trumpets, four saxophones, tuba, piano, two
bassists and two percussionists performed twelve Braxton compositions.

Braxton's new quartet, that basically replaced Corea's piano with
Kenny Wheeler's trumpet (keeping Holland and Altschul), debuted on
Live at Moers Festival (june 1974), a double-LP that contained six
of Braxton's cryptic and overlong compositions.

But the prolific Braxton was recording non-stop, rarely replicating the powerful
atmosphere of his masterpieces:
Four Compositions (january 1973) for a trio with percussionist Masahiko Sato and bassist Keiki Midorikawa;
First Duo Concert (june 1974) and Royal (july 1974) with British guitarist Derek Bailey;
Trio and Duet (october 1974), that contained Comp 36 for
Braxton (clarinets), Smith (trumpet) and Richard Teitelbaum (synthesizer);
New York Fall 1974 (september 1974), that contained
Comp 37 for a saxophone quartet (Braxton, Julius Hemphill, Oliver Lake and Hamiet Bluiett),
Comp 38A for saxophone and synthesizer (Richard Teitelbaum),
Comp 23A for sax-violin-trumpet quintet (Wheeler, Jenkins, Holland, drummer Jerome Cooper);
Five Pieces (july 1975), that contained Comp 23E for the quartet (Braxton, Holland, Altschul and Wheeler);
etc.
Most of these albums were trivial, although each contained something
that opened new directions for experimental music.

Braxton returned to the most ambitious idea of his career with
Creative Orchestra Music (february 1976),
six relatively short pieces for a mid-size ensemble that constituted his
most eclectic output yet.

In between these seminal recordings, Braxton wasted his talent in erratic
collaborations. Duets with trombonist George Lewis yielded
Elements of Surprise (june 1976),
dominated by Lewis' Music For Trombone and Bb Soprano, and
Donaueschingen (october 1976), dominated by
Lewis' 41-minute Fred's Garden.
Duets with synthesist Richard Teitelbaum yielded Time Zones (june 1976),
taken up by Teitelbaum's Crossing and Behemoth Dreams.
Further collaborations accounted for
Duets (august 1976) with pianist Muhal Richard Abrams
and
Duets (december 1976) with Roscoe Mitchell also on reeds.

Among all these mediocre recordings one stood out:
For Trio (september 1977), containing two versions of Comp 76
(one with Henry Threadgill and Douglas Ewart, and one with
Roscoe Mitchell and Joseph Jarman).
The sheer number of instruments played by each member of the two trios
was unheard of in jazz music.

He revisited two of his greatest ideas in rather inferior albums:
Solo (may 1978) and Creative Orchestra (may 1978), that he only
conducted (without playing).
But then he outdid himself on
For Four Orchestras (may 1978), that contained just one colossal
piece, the two-hour Comp 82 for 160 musicians and four conductors:
the four orchestras surrounded the audience, that was given a chance to
hear the chaotic interplay as it strove to evolve towards organic music.
Braxton planned to score similar symphonies for six, eight, ten, and
eventually 100 orchestras.
The Alto Saxophone Improvisations (november 1979) were also more interesting,
although a far cry from his two solo masterpieces.
At last, his algorithmic music was heading for magniloquent drama.

Two of his best albums of this period were collaborations with veteran
drummer Max Roach:
Birth and Rebirth (september 1978) and
One In Two - Two In One (august 1979).

In the meantime the routine of avantgarde compositions resumed.
Composition No. 94 (april 1980) contained two versions of the piece (forward and backward reading) for saxophone or clarinet, guitar and trombone.
For Two Pianos (september 1980) contained Braxton's 50-minute Comp. 95 performed by Frederic Rzewski and Ursula Oppens.
Braxton returned to the large ensemble for Composition N. 96 (may 1981).
Open Aspects (march 1982) was another session with Richard Teitelbaum (now a specialist of computer interaction), but this time it was dominated by Braxton's compositions.

Composition 113 (december 1983) was a new solo album, but different from
anything he had done before. First of all, Braxton played only soprano saxophone. Second, the album contained a six-movement suite that told a story. It was one
of his most "humane" works.

Four Pieces (november 1981) documents a long lost studio collaboration between pianist Giorgio Gaslini and Anthony Braxton.

The quartet remained Braxton's favorite format, but it began to include the
piano.
Composition 98 (january 1981) documented a transitional quartet with
Anderson and pianist Marilyn Crispell.
The quartet consisted of pianist Anthony Davis, bassist Mark Helias and
drummer Edward Blackwell on Six Compositions - Quartet (october 1981),
and for once the players prevailed over the composer.
Four Compositions - Quartet (march 1983) was a more composition-oriented
effort by a quartet with
Lewis, bassist John Lindberg and percussionist Gerry Hemingway.
Six Compositions - Quartet (1984) featured Crispell, Lingberg and Hemingway.
Quartet (november 1985) had stabilized with pianist Marilyn Crispell, double-bassist Mark Dresser and drummer Gerry Hemingway, although
Five Compositions - Quartet (july 1986) replaced Crispell with David Rosenboom.

Trio Glasgow (june 2005), i.e. the 56-minute Composition 323a and the 60-minute Composition 323b, featured Tom Crean on guitar and Taylor Ho Bynum on trumpets.
Its companion was the four-disc set Solo Live At Gasthof Heidelberg Loppem (june 2005), containing Compositions 307-309 and a few covers.

The nine-disc set 9 Compositions - Iridium (march 2006) documented the world premieres of Compositions 350 through 358 (each about one hour long) as performed by his 12+1tet (roughly four saxophonists, trumpet, guitar, flute, viola, trombone, tuba, bassoon, bass, percussion) over the course of four nights in a New York club, the final works in the "Ghost Trance Music" series.

The four-disc box-set Trillium E (composed in 2000 but recorded in march 2010) contains his Composition No 237 - Opera in Four Acts
for 12 vocalists, 12 solo instrumentalists and a 40-piece orchestra,
the follow-up to Trillium A (staged in San Diego in 1985), Trillium M (premiered in London in 1994), and Trillium R (Composition n° 162).
"There is no single story line in Trillium because there is no point of focus being generated. Instead the audience is given a multi-level event state that fulfills vertical and horizontal strategies".

Credited to the duo Anthony Braxton/Buell Neidlinger, 2 BY 2: Duets (april 1989) was released only a decade later.

Creative Music Orchestra (NYC) 2011 (october 2011) is actually a performance by the Tri-Centric Orchestra conducted by Aaron Siegel, Jessica
Pavone and Taylor Ho Bynum, a one-hour suite that also recycles old themes.

The 12-disc set 12 Duets (august 2012)
features Braxton on electronics and saxes with
vocalist Kyoko Kitamura, Erica Dicker (violin and
prepared/scordatura violin), and Katherine Young (bassoon,
electronics).